This invention relates to cat litter boxes.
Cat litter is widely used today to provide absorbent material for cat waste, i.e urine and feces. The litter is housed in a litter box or tray. The litter boxes often are covered for aesthetics and odor reduction with entry being had by a side opening in the cover.
A persistent problem with the use of cat litter boxes and trays is that of cats tracking litter onto the floor or carpet when leaving the litter box. Over the period of a day or two a significant amount of unsightly litter typically accumulates near the box. Attempts at training cats to wipe their paws upon leaving the box are useless due to their independent nature.
Heretofore I addressed this problem by inventing a threshold for a covered type cat litter box having a side entry as shown and described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,924,383. The threshold comprised a stand that supported an elevated cat landing field, a ramp having a rough litter-dislodging surface that extended down from the landing field, and a barrier in the form of a cover for barring cats from jumping onto or off the sides of the ramp. By setting the threshold with the ramp accessible to the litter box entry, cats could ingress and egress the box only via the threshold rough litter-dislodging ramp and the landing field.
I have since found that cats are often hesitant to enter a litter box through such a threshold. Apparently some find the covered ramp to be a tunnel with an uncertain end that they cannot see until they have jumped up onto the landing field. Moreover, the presence of the threshold, which juts out from the litter box, places the litter further away from the entry. This in turn makes the litter odor weaker and thus less attractive. The addition of the threshold also enlarges the overall litter box, the presence of which is usually considered a necessary evil.
Accordingly, it is seen that were a litter box to be devised without the just mentioned disadvantages of an add-on threshold, and yet with the advantage it provides in dislodging and collecting litter from the paws of departing cats, rather than have such tracked about, a definitive advance would be achieved. It thus is to the provision of such that the present invention is primarily directed.
In a preferred form of the invention, the new cat litter box comprises a tray having a bottom from which sides upwardly extend to an upper lip and a lid for the tray has a top from which sides downwardly extend to a lower lip configured to be supported upon the tray upper lip. The lid sides are formed with an opening through which cats may come and go. A ramp having a rough litter-dislodging surface is mounted in the tray extending upwardly from adjacent the tray bottom to adjacent the lid side wall opening.
In another preferred form the cat litter box comprises a tray having a bottom upon which litter may be spread. The box has a lid removably mounted upon the tray which has an opening through which cats may pass. A walkway with a rough litter-dislodging surface is mounted in the tray. The walkway has a substantially level landing field portion located adjacent the lid opening from which an extension portion extends. An upright barrier is mounted on the walkway beside the level landing field portion to prevent a cat from bypassing the walkway extension portion in exiting the box.